As we moved into spring in the UK, one of the Roadgrip teams headed south to a very different autumnal climate in the Falkland Islands. This was Roadgrip’s third visit to the RAF Mount Pleasant Airbase, which provides a station for air transport in the South Atlantic and is home to nearly 2000 military personnel.
With a South Atlantic winter fast approaching, the challenge was on for our team to apply a specialist coating and associated pavement markings to further sections of the taxiways, along with grooving several sections of the main runway as part of a partial resurfacing.
We applied a sealing preservation resin for concrete that seals the surface and provides excellent friction properties, which helps with safety and longevity in the wet weather and ever-changing elements. The concrete aprons at Mount Pleasant are valuable because of the nature of the airbase and remoteness of the site, so surface preservation is essential.
Because of the cold and wet climate, it can be difficult to apply the resin. You really do need to know what you’re doing! Ideally, you need dry weather and warm temperatures, but we didn’t have such a luxury. The material has to be heated up to 15 degrees before application, which can be an issue in the cold so our team needed to burn the concrete surface first to clean it.
While some of the team completed the coating application, others in the team moved on to cutting grooves into the newly laid sections of the asphalt runway, which involved the shipping of specialist machinery to the location. Managing the logistics of transporting runway grooving machines around the world is something our global team are used to, no matter how remote the job.
When all of the resurfacing was complete, our line marking team replaced the runway markings to DE safety standards.
Despite the ever-challenging climate, the team delivered the works in good time and are now safely back in the UK after further challenges that had resulted from travelling during Covid-19.
Read more about runway marking, airfield grooving and surface preservation at Roadgrip Airports or contact us for a quick quote for UK and International airfield maintenance services.
